Vanuatu village relocated due to rising sea level

The World Today - Tuesday, 6 December , 2005 12:36:00

Reporter: Alison Caldwell

ELEANOR HALL: To the South Pacific now where in Vanuatu rising sea levels have forced the relocation of an entire village.

This is being described as the first case in the world of the formal displacement of an entire human population because of global warming.

More than 100 residents of Tegua Island had to abandon their settlement for higher ground after major flooding made their village uninhabitable.

But the UN Climate Conference in Montreal has heard that this could be just the beginning of a trend in the region, as Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: In August more than 100 residents of the Lateu settlement on Vanuatu's Tegua Island dismantled their wooden homes and moved half a kilometre inland.

In recent years king tides caused by tropical cyclones had flooded the village up to five times a year, making it increasingly dangerous for the residents to live there any longer.

Silas Tigona is a scientific officer with Vanuatu's Meteorological Service in Port Vila, which monitors the rising sea levels.

SILAS TIGONA: Ah, what was happening in Tegua for the past years was the sea level rise, then the villages, the village is experiencing the sea level rise. The sea level rise significantly until this creek with fresh water, upon fresh water on the settlement. So that was what was happening during the past years, till now at Tegua.

ALISON CALDWELL: And making it impossible for the people to stay there?

SILAS TIGONA: Yeah, the people's life is in danger if they continue to live there, because most of the buildings, most of the houses are close to the coast, and the fresh water that they use is being under threat by the sea level rise, or it's, the life is not well when living in their former settlement.

ALISON CALDWELL: Now, scientists are saying that the reason for this is modern global warming. Is that what you think?

SILAS TIGONA: I think the global warming in the main reason for the, for what is happening in Tegua and other parts of coastal settlement in Vanuatu.

ALISON CALDWELL: The local church was dismantled and moved inland as a way of encouraging the people to leave their settlement.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, the Latue settlement is possibly the first village to be formally moved out of harm's way as a result of climate change.

Silas Tigona says other islands nearby are also coming under similar pressure from rising sea levels.

SILAS TIGONA: Most of the people are still living in the coastal areas, but we are encouraging people to take their own initiative to move upland. I mean, we encourage people to build churches or communities, community buildings or cooperative or clinic, plus the permanent building. We encourage people who live by the coast to take their own initiative and build permanent buildings in safe areas.

The local government authorities should take some initiative too to help communities to relocate to safe areas.

ALISON CALDWELL: The UN Climate Conference in Montreal heard how several other coastal communities are vulnerable to rising sea levels, including the Italian city of Venice and settlements in the Arctic where melting sea ice has led to coastal erosion.

But Pacific Islanders are most at risk. The conference was told that 2,000 people off the Cantaret Islands in Papua New Guinea are preparing to move to nearby Bougainville Island as a result of rising sea levels.